Don Kitchenbrand

Don Kitchenbrand
Personal information
Full name Donald Basil Kitchenbrand[1]
Date of birth (1933-08-13) 13 August 1933 (age 91)
Place of birth Germiston, South Africa
Position(s) Forward
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1950 Boksburg
1951–1955 Delfos
1955–1958 Rangers 30 (26)
1958–1960 Sunderland 53 (28)
1960 Johannesburg Ramblers
1960 Vereeniging Athletic
1961–1962 Johannesburg Wanderers
1962–1963 Forfar Athletic 9 (6)
1963 Keith 5 (2)
Total 91+ (60+)
International career
1956 South Africa XI 1 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Don Kitchenbrand (also Kichenbrand; born 13 August 1933) is a retired South African football player who played in Britain for Rangers and Sunderland in the mid to late 1950s.

Nicknamed The Rhino by the club's fans,[1] Kitchenbrand was one of very few players of the Catholic faith to play for Rangers between the 1920s and 1980s, between which times an unwritten rule was in effect; he was advised not to disclose his religion when signing.[2][3][4] In his first season in British football (1955–56), he scored 24 goals in 25 league appearances to help Rangers win the Scottish League title.[5] That goal tally included the only goal in a 1–0 win over Old Firm rivals Celtic on 2 January 1956,[6] and a five-goal haul in an 8–0 rout of Queen of the South at Ibrox on 7 March 1956.[3][7] Kitchenbrand didn't feature much for Rangers after that first season,[5] having lost his place in the side to Max Murray,[8] and left for Sunderland in March 1958.[8]

He played 54 competitive games for Sunderland, scoring 28 goals.[9] In November 1958 he scored a hat-trick in a 4–0 win over Rotherham, the first hat-trick a Sunderland player had achieved in two years.[10]

He returned to his homeland in 1960 to play for Johannesburg Wanderers[8] and a number of other teams,[11] before coming back to Scotland two years later for a brief spell at Forfar Athletic.[3][12]

He played once for his country in March 1956, featuring in a South Africa representative side all consisting of British-based players and including Kitchenbrand's Rangers team-mate Johnny Hubbard. They played against a Scotland XI at Ibrox, losing 2–1.[3][13]

As of 2019, Kitchenbrand and his wife were living in an elderly persons' complex in Benoni, Gauteng.[3]

  1. ^ a b "Don Kitchenbrand: Rangers Secret Catholic" (in Dutch). Doing the 116 Blog. 13 July 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  2. ^ "Ibrox left-footers". The Glasgow Herald. 15 September 1989. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e Cramer, Trevor (10 July 2019). "Kitch's biltong beef with rival fans". Benoni City Times. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  4. ^ McDougall, Mark (10 July 2019). "When Mo Johnston signed for Rangers - how the Record reported that momentous day in 1989". Daily Record. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  5. ^ a b "Kichenbrand, Don". FitbaStats. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  6. ^ "Unpredictable Celtic and Rangers". The Glasgow Herald. 3 January 2021. p. 9. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
  7. ^ "Rangers Player Don Kichenbrand, Games Played 1955/1956". FitbaStats. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
  8. ^ a b c Houghton, Ashley (7 February 2014). "Player of the Day: Don Kitchenbrand". Sunderland Association Football Club. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  9. ^ "Sunderland AFC – Statistics, History and Records – from TheStatCat". Thestatcat.co.uk. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
  10. ^ "Sunderland Teams 1958/59". rokerpark.com. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  11. ^ Raath, Peter (2002). Soccer Through the Years 1862–2002. Peter Raath. ISBN 0-620-29805-7.
  12. ^ "Forfar Athletic Player Donald Kitchenbrand Details". Fitbastats.com. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
  13. ^ "Ordeal for Scottish team at Ibrox". The Glasgow Herald. 13 March 1956. p. 4. Retrieved 18 June 2018.